The environmental control systems in, for example, the aerospace industry have evolved from early aviation days when, for example, aircraft were not pressurized and altitude was limited, to the state of the art environmental control and life support systems of today. The environmental control systems allow conversion of conditions outside, for example, the aircraft shell, to a comfortable environment inside the shell.
Generally, an aircraft includes one or more environmental control systems that include multiple fluid intakes, heat exchangers, compressors, expansion turbines and valves. In conventional environmental control systems the operational abnormalities or malfunctions with the environmental control system components are detected in various ways. As an example, existing solutions to detecting operational malfunctions with the environmental control system include installing threshold sensors (such as air quality or temperature sensors within the passenger cabin) on the aircraft where the environmental control system is shut down and switched to a backup environmental system when a threshold is reached. As another example, the passengers or crew of the aircraft are able to detect increased temperature within the passenger cabin of the aircraft which may indicate an operational malfunction with the environmental control system components.
Problems with the environmental control system may be difficult to diagnose, as proven by maintenance data where, for example, about 50% of the operational malfunctions are described as “general”. Examples, of operational malfunctions are blocked heat exchangers, inoperable valves, fan degradation and/or icing of system components.